Amazon sets up e-notification for cloud-based database service

Amazon Web Services’ Relational Database Service is now equipped to automatically ping database administrators whenever key events occur in the setup and operation of the service.

Agency database managers can set up push notifications when, for example, an RDS instance is low on storage or a backup has started or finished.

The notices can be in any form supported by Amazon’s Simple Notification Service, including e-mail, SMS text message or a call to an HTTP endpoint. SMS messages are currently available only in the Eastern U.S., according to AWS’ user guide.

More than 40 types of notifications are available. An admin could be notified, for example, when a security configuration or password of the RDS was changed, the database was going offline for patch installation or when an RDS instance was created or deleted.

Customers can manage their notifications via RDS APIs or through AWS’s customer management console. Pricing is based on the messaging format preferred. For HTTP, the first 100,000 notifications are free and 6 cents per 100,000 thereafter. For e-mail, the first 1,000 notifications are free and $2 per 100,000 after. SMS is free for the first 100 notices and 75 cents per 100 thereafter.

Amazon RDS, which is still being beta tested, will support the notifications for all the databases it accesses, including MySQL and Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server database engine.

About the Author

Paul McCloskey is senior editor of GCN. A former editor-in-chief of both GCN and FCW, McCloskey was part of Federal Computer Week's founding editorial staff.